All My Children

"Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others." - Plato




I am not much on formal volunteerism and the accolades that accompany it. That's not why I do it. Instead, I prefer to do my thing in the background, and I teach my kids to do the same. Fourteen and I went up to the school to do a project with the kindergarten class. Once we finished, they broke out the play-dough.

The teacher, who has skooled a few McKnights in her time, commented that he was quite a popular fixture.

"Well," he said, "I COULD be at home watching t.v."

"Yeah," the teacher replied, "You're missing 'All My Children.'"

I joined in, "Instead, we're here with 'Half My Children!'" We giggled and the other two walked in the door. "NOW it's all of 'em!"

Kindergarteners are an easy group to please, and teenagers who take the time to do play-dough with them are always admired. I think it is nice that the older ones think enough of their little sis to spend time with her.

I worried about that (well, I worry about EVERYTHING!) often during the early years - that she'd have no relationship with her older sibs. But it's turned out okay.

I hope that our small gesture inspires these kids to do the same with the next gang to come along. . .it's all laid out in the philosophy of Play-dough. . .